Dell Developing Pocket-Sized Device — Engineers at Dell Inc. have been developing a pocket-sized device for tapping into the Internet, people familiar with the company's plans said. — The gadget uses Google Inc.'s Android software, these people said. Two people who said they saw early …

China Bans Gold Farming — Trading virtual goods for real money has been banned in China, putting hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity at risk. — In addition to its ongoing crackdown on Internet porn, the Chinese government has declared that virtual currency cannot be traded for real goods or services.

Dear Malcolm: Why So Threatened? — It's now clear that the bane of my next year will be questions about the future of the newspaper industry from journalists. I don't blame them—newspapers are indeed one of the industries most affected by Free (although that's just one manifestation …

Windows 7 preorder a hit—on Amazon — Amazon has been taking quite a number of early orders for Windows 7. The $49 preorder version of Windows 7 Home Premium is now the top seller not just among software products, but among all electronics items at the online retailer.

Adobe shuts down for a week — Adobe Systems has shut down its North American operations for the week, as part of a cost-cutting effort that the company said it will repeat at least once more this year. — The San Jose software company, which makes editing, graphic design and web development tools …

PC Makers Comply With China's ‘Green Dam’ Edict — SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- Two major computer makers indicate that each will comply with a Chinese law requiring all computers shipped to the country include a particular type of web-filtering software. — The recent moves by Acer Inc. …

Facebook Selects New CFO: Former Genentech Exec Ebersman — Facebook picked a new CFO quietly, after its cloddish public parting with longtime top financial exec Gideon Yu earlier this year. — Facebook said in late March it was looking for a CFO with “public company experience,” …

City Invites Software Developers to Crunch Big Data Sets — In an effort to improve government transparency and accountability and stimulate development of the digital media industry, New York City is inviting software developers and related professionals this fall to develop applications …

VCs say industry is ‘broken’ — The venture industry is broken. At least that's what the majority of venture capitalists think, according to a survey from executive search firm Polachi. PeHub.com has the details, noting that 52.9 percent of the VC respondents called the industry “broken …

Telecom firms back standard phone charger in Europe — Top mobile telephone suppliers have agreed to back an EU-wide harmonization of phone chargers, the European Commission said on Monday, hailing the pact as good news for consumers and the environment. — The agreement by Nokia …

Companies File Trademarks for New Top Level Domain Names — Filings unlikely to give a leg up in application process. — Companies are filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for service marks related to new TLDs. For example, Top Level Domain Holdings, Ltd (AIM: TLDH) …

Obama CIO To Unveil Transparency Tool — On Tuesday, White House Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra and White House New Media Director Macon Phillips will unveil an Internet-based interactive dashboard that will make available in a single location details about every major information …

How the Mafia conquered social networks — Not so long ago, the faces of gaming on social networks were zombies, vampires, and cuddly virtual pets. Now it's more along the lines of Michael Corleone or Tony Soprano. — You've probably seen it in your news feed: From Facebook to MySpace and now Twitter …

Tech Rumor of the Day: Nvidia — Nvidia (NVDA Quote) is once again on the verge of cracking a mobile device market: smartphones. — Mike Rayfield, the general manager of Nvidia's mobile unit says he expects the company's Tegra chip to debut in a phone from one of the top five cell-phone makers …

The Pirate Bay to Take On YouTube, Hulu with The Video Bay — Watch out Hollywood, another threat to your profits appears to be setting sail and headed in your direction. A site called The Video Bay aims to make pirated TV shows and Hollywood movies available in hi-def quality for streaming through …